237 Conn. 390 | Conn. | 1996
Lead Opinion
The defendant, Anthony James, was convicted after a jury trial of one count of felony murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54c
On appeal, the defendant claims that: (1) the trial court improperly failed to suppress his written confession; (2) the admission of his written confession at trial violated his right to due process under the state constitution because the police had failed to record the confession electronically; and (3) there was insufficient
The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. On the morning of January 13, 1993, the victim, eighty-one year old Pauline Grincunas, was found with head injuries, lying unconscious on the floor of her apartment in a multiunit house at 13-15 Green Street in Waterbury, by her landlord, Joseph Mariano. The victim was the only tenant occupying the house. A rear exterior door to the house, which led to a first floor apartment, and the front interior door to the victim’s second floor apartment had been pried open. Several items in the apartment were out of their usual places,
Waterbury police officers arrived shortly after the victim was discovered. The victim was taken by ambulance to Waterbury Hospital, where she died at 12:30 p.m. from blunt force trauma to the head. An autopsy was performed on January 14, 1993, from which the medical examiner determined that the victim had been struck seven times in the head with an object whose characteristics were consistent with a crowbar.
At approximately 1:30 a.m. on January 15, shortly after the police had received information from an acquaintance of the defendant implicating him in the victim’s murder, several police officers went to the defendant’s apartment and the apartment of Michael Sebastian, a friend of the defendant, who lived next door to him, to question both of them. Both the defendant and Sebastian were brought to the police station for questioning. After several hours, the defendant signed a confession that stated that during the evening of January 12,1993, he and Sebastian had broken into the house at 13-15 Green Street, which he had believed to be unoccupied, and that Sebastian had come upon the victim and had stmck her with a crowbar. The confession included several accurate details of the crime. The defendant was subsequently arrested and charged with felony murder and burglary.
Prior to trial, the defendant moved to suppress his written confession, claiming that it was the fruit of an illegal seizure at his apartment, and that he had not knowingly,' intelligently and voluntarily waived his Miranda
At trial, the written confession, redacted in part, was read to the jury. The defendant testified in his own defense. He claimed that he had not been involved in the break-in and murder and that he had never confessed to those crimes, but had signed a completed typewritten confession after several hours of interrogation because the police had threatened to arrest his fiancee and to remove her children, one of whom was his biological child, from their home. The jury found the defendant guilty as charged. Thereafter, the trial court denied the defendant’s motions for acquittal
I
The defendant first claims that the trial court improperly failed to suppress his confession on a number of grounds. Specifically, he claims that the trial court improperly concluded that: (1) he had not been illegally
Before turning to the defendant’s claims, we first review the evidence presented to the trial court on these
O’Leary and Henderson proceeded to the front door of the defendant’s second floor apartment and Distasio and Cassada were stationed at the back door. According to the officers, this procedure was “routine,” undertaken for safety reasons, and to prevent anyone from leaving the apartment without at least being identified. Distasio and Cassada testified that if the defendant had attempted to exit the apartment through the back door, they would have detained him at least long enough for O’Leary to speak to him, but that they had not intended to arrest him.
When the defendant arrived at the police station, he was placed in a small room that ordinarily was used as an office. Sebastian was brought into the station at about the same time and was placed in another room in the same area. Shortly thereafter, before any questioning took place, O’Leary advised the defendant of his Miranda rights in the presence of Henderson and
Throughout the morning, O’Leary, Egan and Henderson, at times individually and at times together, questioned the defendant. They went back and forth between him and Sebastian many times, but did not question the defendant for longer than twenty to thirty minutes at any one time. The defendant was left alone in the room several times, during which the door was left ajar. The room was never locked. The defendant was not told that he was free to leave the station but did not ask to do so. Shortly after he was advised of his Miranda rights, the defendant was informed that Sebastian had implicated him in the other burglaries under investigation. The defendant admitted to participating in the burglaries with Sebastian and also told the police that he was “wanted” in Florida under his real name. During the morning, the defendant was provided with food, drink and cigarettes. The police denied that the defendant was physically abused or threatened with Fraser’s arrest while at the police station.
At approximately 5:30 a.m., the defendant was informed that Sebastian had told the police that the defendant had admitted to killing the victim. Initially,
Between 11 a.m. and noon, the defendant confessed his involvement in the break-in and murder. He was again advised of his Miranda rights and agreed to waive those rights and to give a written statement. Between 1:20 p.m. and 3:20 p.m., O’Leary prepared a written statement by typing the defendant’s contemporaneous oral statements and answers to O’Leary’s questions regarding his personal background, the area burglaries and the break-in at 13-15 Green Street. Egan was present during most of the defendant’s statement. When the typewritten statement was completed, the defendant initialed the top of the statement form to acknowledge that he had received, understood and waived his Miranda rights, he read the statement aloud and, after making a few changes, which he initialed, signed each page of the statement. Henderson notarized his signature.
With regard to his experience at the police station, the defendant testified to the following. He claimed that when he arrived, Egan struck him on the face and chest,
According to the defendant, during the course of the morning he was interrogated by four or five police officers, was moved into a number of different rooms, was not given food, and was denied access to a bathroom, forcing him to urinate into a trash can.
Finally, the defendant testified that between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., he had told O’Leary that he was wanted in Florida, and had given him his real name and social security number. The defendant claimed that O’Leary returned shortly thereafter and told him that although the charges in Florida were not serious in nature, O’Leary would arrest Fraser on charges of harboring a
A
We first address the defendant’s claim that the trial court improperly concluded that he had not been illegally seized, under article first, § 7, of the state constitution
“A person is not arrested or seized [however] ... if he freely chooses to enter into or continue an encounter with the police. United States v. Brunson, 549 F.2d 348, 357 (5th Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 842, 98 S. Ct. 140, 54 L. Ed. 2d 107 (1977). Police officers do not violate an individual’s constitutional rights by approaching him, by asking him if he is willing to answer some questions, by putting questions to him if he is willing to listen, or by offering into evidence in a criminal prosecution his voluntary answers to such questions. Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 497, 103 S. Ct. 1319, 75 L. Ed. 2d 229 (1983); State v. Brown, 199 Conn. 47, 52-53, 505 A.2d 1225 (1986).” State v. Damon, supra, 214 Conn. 153-54. Among the factors that may be considered in determining whether a defendant’s encounter with police was consensual in nature are: “ ‘the time, place and purpose of the encounter; the words used by the officer; his tone of voice and general demeanor in requesting the defendant to accompany him to the police station; the officer’s statements to others who were present during the encounter; the manner in which the defendant was escorted out of the house and transported to the stationhouse; the officer’s response to any questions by the defendant . . . regarding the defendant’s right to refuse to go to the stationhouse; and the defendant’s verbal or non-verbal responses to any directions given to him by the officer.’ ” 3 W. LaFave, Search and Seizure (3d Ed. 1996) § 5.1 (a), p. 5, quoting People v. Pancoast, 659 P.2d 1348, 1351 (Colo. 1982).
The trial couit’s findings of historical fact regarding the defendant’s encounter with police at his apartment
The trial court, in an oral decision, found that the officers went to the defendant’s apartment on the basis of information received from Fields, that they were “admitted to the defendant’s apartment, and when [the defendant] was told that the police wanted him to come to headquarters for questioning concerning burglaries and the homicide of an elderly woman, the defendant got dressed and freely consented to accompany the officers. The day before, the defendant was also stopped by Waterbury police officers and agreed to go with them to the police station for questioning. After that interrogation, police officers drove him home.” The trial court “conclude[d] that during the early morning hours of January 15, 1993, the defendant went voluntarily in the company of the police to police headquarters. [It did] not conclude under applicable federal or state standards that the defendant was seized at his home or that the defendant’s incriminatory statements were the fruit of an illegal arrest, as discussed in State v. Oquendo, [supra, 223 Conn. 635].”
The defendant argues that the trial court’s factual findings should be overturned because they rest implic
The trial court, in the hearing on the defendant’s motion to suppress his written confession, was presented with two versions of the encounter between the police and the defendant at his apartment that conflicted in several material respects. The court’s findings turned primarily on which witnesses it believed. “ ‘In a [proceeding] tried before a court, the trial judge is the sole arbiter of the credibility of the witnesses and the weight to be given specific testimony.’ ” Steiger v. J. S. Builders, Inc., 39 Conn. App. 32, 34-35, 663 A.2d 432 (1995). “Where there is conflicting evidence . . . we do not retry the facts or pass on the credibility of the witnesses. . . . The probative force of conflicting evidence is for the trier to determine.” (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Id., 34. The trial court reasonably accepted the police officers’ version of events at the defendant’s apartment, and expressly rejected the conflicting testimony of the defendant and Fraser as not credible. We will not retry these credibility determinations on appeal.
We are also unpersuaded by the defendant’s claim that, even accepting the police version of events, the trial court must necessarily have concluded that the defendant did not voluntarily go to the police station, but was seized. It is undisputed that whether the defendant was seized turns on the application of an objective standard, namely, whether a reasonable person in the defendant’s circumstances would have believed that he was not free to refuse to accompany the police officers to the station for questioning. In support of his claim,
The determination of whether a seizure occurred must be made in light of the totality of the circumstances. See State v. Chung, 202 Conn. 39, 53, 519 A.2d 1175 (1987). Thus, although we agree with the defendant that the lateness of the hour at which the encounter occurred and the presence of several officers clearly imparted a sense of urgency and importance to O’Leary’s request that the defendant accompany him to the station to answer questions, we do not consider these elements of the encounter dispositive.
With regard to the intent of the detectives at the back door to detain the defendant in some fashion if he had attempted to exit through that door, we agree with the state that there is no evidence that this intent was expressed to the defendant, and it was, therefore, a circumstance of which he was not aware. As such, it does little to advance his claim that the circumstances were such that a reasonable person would not have felt free to decline to go to the station. See Stansbury v. California, 511 U.S. 318, 325, 114 S. Ct. 1526, 128 L. Ed. 2d 293 (1994); United States v. Mendenhall, supra, 446 U.S. 554 n.6; 3 W. LaFave, supra, § 5.1 (a), p. 8. In sum, we are not persuaded that the trial court was required to conclude that a reasonable person in the defendant’s circumstances would not have felt free to refuse to accompany the police to the station for questioning.
We conclude, therefore, on the basis of our review of the record, that substantial evidence supported the trial court’s determination that the defendant was not seized by the police at his apartment under either the fourth amendment to the federal constitution or article first, § 7, of the state constitution, but, rather, that he voluntarily agreed to accompany the police to the police station for further questioning regarding the murder and some local burglaries.
B
The defendant next claims that the trial court improperly concluded that his written confession was volun
It is well established that “[t]he use of an involuntary confession in a criminal trial is a denial of due process of law. Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 398, 98 S. Ct. 2408, 57 L. Ed. 2d 290 (1978); Jackson v. Denno, 378 U.S. 368, 376, 84 S. Ct. 1774, 12 L. Ed. 2d 908 (1964); Culombe v. Connecticut, 367 U.S. 568, 602, 81 S. Ct. 1860, 6 L. Ed. 2d 1037 (1961); State v. Shifflett, 199 Conn. 718, 727, 508 A.2d 748 (1986).” State v. Schroff, 206 Conn. 182, 195, 536 A.2d 952 (1988). Furthermore, a criminal defendant is entitled, as a matter of due process, to a reliable, clear-cut determination prior to trial that the confession sought to be introduced by the state was made voluntarily. Jackson v. Denno, supra, 391. In Connecticut, the preliminary voluntariness determination is made by the trial court. See State v. Oliver, 160 Conn. 85, 95, 273 A.2d 867 (1970), cert. denied, 402 U.S. 946, 91 S. Ct. 1637, 29 L. Ed. 2d 115 (1971).
“In order to be voluntary a confession must be the product of an essentially free and unconstrained choice by the maker. . . . If it is not, if his will has been overborne and his capacity for self-determination critically impaired, the use of the confession offends due
The trial court’s findings as to the circumstances surrounding the defendant’s interrogation and confession are “findings of fact . . . which will not be overturned unless they are clearly erroneous.” (Citation omitted.) State v. Atkinson, supra, 235 Conn. 759. On the ultimate issue of voluntariness, however, we will conduct “an independent and scrupulous examination of the entire record to ascertain whether the trial court’s finding is supported by substantial evidence.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Chung, supra, 202 Conn. 54; see Miller v. Fenton, 474 U.S. 104, 112, 106 S. Ct. 445, 88 L. Ed. 2d 405 (1985) (although trial court’s findings on subsidiary facts entitled to presumption of correctness under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 [d], ultimate determination of voluntariness is subject to independent review); Mincey v. Arizona, supra, 437 U.S. 398 (trial
We turn first to the defendant’s contention that the prosecution must, under the state constitution, prove the voluntariness of a confession beyond a reasonable doubt. This claim was raised in the trial court, which court, without reaching the merits of this claim, determined that the state had satisfied both the preponderance standard and the reasonable doubt standard. On appeal, the defendant concedes that his claim has previously been rejected in favor of the preponderance standard, both under the federal constitution; see Lego v. Twomey, 404 U.S. 477, 92 S. Ct. 619, 30 L. Ed. 2d 618 (1972); and under the state constitution. State v. Staples, 175 Conn. 398, 399 A.2d 1269 (1978).
In Staples, the defendant claimed that voluntariness must be shown beyond a reasonable doubt “under Connecticut jurisprudence”; id., 403; because the involuntariness of a confession implicates its reliability and, therefore, the requirement of proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt would be violated “unless it is required that vohmtariness be proven by the same standard of proof.” Id., 404. We relied on the Supreme Court’s response to essentially the same claim in Lego, reasoning that “implicit in [that claim] was an unjustified assumption that a voluntariness hearing was designed to enhance the reliability of jury verdicts or to implement the presumption of innocence”; id., 405; and concluding that “ ‘[a] guilty verdict is not rendered less reliable or less consonant with [the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt] simply because the admissibility of a confession is determined by a
The defendant asks us to overrule Staples. We have held that “a court should not overrule its earlier decisions unless the most cogent reasons and inescapable logic require it.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) White v. Burns, 213 Conn. 307, 335, 567 A.2d 1195 (1990). In support of his claim, the defendant relies on three elements of constitutional analysis set forth in State v. Geisler, 222 Conn. 672, 685, 610 A.2d 1225 (1992), and State v. Linares, 232 Conn. 345, 379, 655 A.2d 737 (1995),
The defendant first argues that the common-law approach to the admissibility of confession evidence, as reflected in certain case law and in commentary by Chief Justice Zephaniah Swift and William Blackstone, demonstrates a historical commitment to requiring the state to meet the highest standard of proof on the voluntariness issue. We disagree.
“As we have noted on other occasions, our common law history is an important source of enlightenment about the meaning to be ascribed to open-ended constitutional provisions guaranteeing due process.” State v. Joyner, 225 Conn. 450, 467, 625 A.2d 791 (1993). The authorities relied upon by the defendant reflect the common-law evidentiary rule that a confession may be kept from the jury if the circumstances under which it was given render it unreliable evidence of guilt. See State v. Willis, 71 Conn. 293, 310, 41 A. 820 (1898) (in describing development of evidentiary rules regarding confessions, “[t]he question is, shall this evidence, admissible as relevant, be excluded, because in the opinion of the judge the conditions of the declaration come within those conditions that make such an admission too unreliable to go to the jury”); 1 W. LaFave & J. Israel, Criminal Procedure (1984) § 6.2, pp. 439-40; 3 J. Wigmore, Evidence (Chadbourn Rev. 1970) § 822, p. 329 n.l. The purpose of the rule, which arose during the middle of the eighteenth century, prior to which time extrajudicial confessions were freely admitted; 1 W. LaFave & J. Israel, supra, § 6.2, p. 439; 3 J. Wigmore, supra, § 819, pp. 296-97; was to “protect a defendant from an erroneous conviction based upon a false con
In Rogers v. Richmond, 365 U.S. 534, 81 S. Ct. 735, 5 L. Ed. 2d 760 (1961), however, the Supreme Court rejected the common law focus on reliability in determining whether a confession is admissible. The court concluded that, under the federal constitution, in determining whether a confession should be excluded as involuntary, the test is “whether the defendant’s will was overborne, which is to be determined with complete disregard of whether or not the [accused] in fact spoke the truth.” Id., 544. This is so, the court reasoned, because involuntary confessions are excluded “not because such confessions are unlikely to be true but because the methods used to extract them offend an underlying principle in the enforcement of our criminal law: that ours is an accusatorial and not an inquisitorial system — a system in which the State must establish guilt by evidence independently and freely secured and may not by coercion prove its charge against an accused out of his own mouth.” Id., 540-41. The court concluded,
It is clear, then, that the common law exclusionary rule employed a different notion of voluntariness and relied upon a different rationale for excluding confession evidence than its constitutional counterpart. The former was an evidentiary rule aimed at safeguarding the trustworthiness of evidence at trial, while the latter is aimed at protecting a criminal defendant’s right to be free from compulsion to incriminate himself or herself. Our common law on this issue, is, therefore, of limited usefulness in defining the contours of the constitutional exclusionary rule, for the common law authorities upon which the defendant relies simply did not address themselves to the question of what rule or standards of proof would be appropriate or necessary to effectuate the goal of protecting a criminal defendant’s right to be free from coercion, without regard to the probativeness of the confession produced. With that in mind, we turn to the defendant’s specific arguments.
First, the defendant argues that certain commentary by Swift and Blackstone
The defendant also relies on later case law applying the common-law rule, which, we agree, clearly allocated the burden of persuasion on admissibility to the state. State v. Lorain, 141 Conn. 694, 700, 109 A.2d 504 (1954); State v. Castelli, 92 Conn. 58, 67, 101 A. 476 (1917). These cases do not, however, address the standard of proof on the admissibility issue. The admissibility of a confession was deemed a preliminary question of fact for the discretion of the trial court, subject on review to a standard of abuse of discretion. State v. Willis, supra, 71 Conn. 313; State v. Castelli, supra, 65; State v. Potter, 18 Conn. 165, 178 (1846) (suggesting wide latitude). Both the United States Supreme Court, in Lego v. Twomey, supra, 404 U.S. 477, and this court in State v. Staples, supra, 175 Conn. 398, appear to have assumed that courts were employing the preponderance standard of proof in determining admissibility, and did not indicate that by adopting the preponderance standard as a constitutional matter, the law or practice in this regard would be changed. Their assumption is consistent with both the “orthodox” view that preliminary questions of fact generally are to be made using the preponderance standard of proof; 1 J. Wigmore, supra, § 17, p. 771 n.20; J. Maguire & C. Epstein, “Preliminary Questions of Fact in Determining the Admissibility of Evidence,” 40 Harv. L. Rev. 392, 422-23 (1927); cf. State v. Figueroa, 235 Conn. 145, 179, 665 A.2d 63 (1995) (whether warrant was issued within period of limitations is preliminary question of fact on which state bears burden of proof by preponderance of evidence); and with the general rule, particularly in civil cases, that “we assume that a trial court has applied the fair preponderance of the evidence standard when it has failed to indicate the standard applied.” State v. Davis, 229 Conn. 285, 302, 641 A.2d 370 (1994). In light of this
The defendant next points to the decisions of several sister state courts adopting the reasonable doubt standard of proof on the voluntariness issue under state law.
Finally, the defendant advances two policy reasons, both relied upon by some sister state courts, in support of his claim that this court should adopt the reasonable doubt standard pursuant to our state constitution. He argues that the reasonable doubt standard is necessary both to protect adequately a criminal defendant’s right
The voluntariness determination serves, primarily, to protect a criminal defendant’s right to be free from compulsion to incriminate himself, which, we agree with the defendant and our sister states, enjoys express constitutional status, is considered fundamental to our system of criminal justice and is, therefore, weighty. See Rogers v. Richmond, supra, 356 U.S. 543-44; State v. Jiminez, supra, 21 Cal. 3d 604-605; State v. Collins, 297 A.2d 620, 626 (Me. 1972). The exclusionary rale protects that right by deterring police coercion and by providing a remedy for individual defendants.
The defendant also contends that the voluntariness determination serves his interest in an accurate jury verdict at trial. In this regard, we note that in State v. Staples, supra, 175 Conn. 405, this court indicated that this is not the primary purpose of the voluntariness inquiry and that the reasonable doubt standard is not mandated in order to satisfy the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt on the ultimate issue of guilt. Without retreating from that position, we acknowledge, however, that the concern that coercion provides a
We have said that “ ‘[t]he function of the burden of proof employed by the court is to allocate] the risk of error between the litigants and indicat[e] the relative importance of the ultimate decision. Addington v. Texas, 441 U.S. 418, 423, 99 S. Ct. 1804, 1808, 60 L. Ed. 2d 323 (1979). . . . Cookson v. Cookson, 201 Conn. 229, 234, 514 A.2d 323 (1986).’ ” State v. Garcia, 233 Conn. 44, 86, 658 A.2d 947 (1995). “[A] standard of proof represents an attempt to instruct the factfinder concerning the degree of confidence our society thinks he should have in the correctness of factual conclusions for a particular type of adjudication. Although the phrases ‘preponderance of the evidence’ and ‘proof beyond a reasonable doubt’ are quantitatively imprecise, they do communicate to the finder of fact different notions concerning the degree of confidence he is expected to have in the correctness of his factual conclusions.” In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 370, 90 S. Ct. 1068, 25 L. Ed. 2d 368 (1970). Further, the standard of proof influences the “relative frequency ... of erroneous outcomes”; id., 371; either in favor of the state when the true facts warrant judgment for the defendant or in favor of the defendant when the true facts warrant judgment for the state. Id. “Because the standard of proof affects the comparative frequency of these two types of erroneous outcomes, the choice of the standard to be applied in a particular kind of litigation should, in a rational world, reflect an assessment of the comparative social disutility of each.” Id.
The preponderance standard is said to “[require] the trier of fact ‘to believe that the existence of a fact is
The defendant argues that the value of his right to be free from compulsion to incriminate himself requires imposition of the standard of proof that minimizes, to the greatest extent possible, the risk of an erroneous decision on voluntariness in favor of the state. See Lego v. Twomey, supra, 404 U.S. 494-95; State v. Jiminez, supra, 21 Cal. 3d 604-605; State v. Collins, supra, 297 A.2d 626. We disagree.
The state, of course, currently bears the burden of persuasion on the voluntariness issue, and must convince the trial court by a preponderance of the evidence that the confession sought to be admitted was voluntarily given. Our focus in the present inquiry is, therefore, on any incremental gains to be realized from imposing the higher reasonable doubt standard. As the defendant points out, this determination often turns on the trial court’s resolution of conflicting testimony by police and the accused. In such circumstances, we believe, it is only in rare cases that the trial court might be convinced by a preponderance of the evidence that a confession is voluntary but nevertheless harbor a reasonable doubt about the same. Although closing this gap would of course benefit defendants in those cases, we are unpersuaded that it would significantly advance the deterrence function of the exclusionary rule. The greatest part of any deterrent effect of exclusion must, in the first instance, be attributed to requiring the prosecution
We also are unpersuaded that the relationship between the court’s preliminary determination of voluntariness and the accuracy of jury verdicts provides a compelling basis for imposing a higher standard of proof. The defendant’s contention, and that of some sister states, that this concern is weighty appears to rest on two premises: first, that involuntary confessions are of highly suspect reliability, and second, that juries are likely to accept a confession uncritically. With regard to the first, however, the defendant has not suggested, nor do we perceive, that involuntariness necessarily equates with falsity. Although coercion is reasonably thought to create a reason to confess falsely, whether a particular coerced confession is also likely to be false depends on many variables. Thus, the exclusion of a confession where there is a reasonable doubt about its voluntariness does not invariably mean that a false confession has been suppressed. Furthermore, safeguards against the admission of false confessions other than a stringent burden of proof are already in place. The state must demonstrate the corpus delicti
At stake for the state in the application of any exclusionary rule is its interest in efficient, effective law enforcement. The exclusionary rule at issue occasions the loss of otherwise relevant and powerful evidence of guilt, the loss of which might seriously weaken if not decimate a state’s case. The cost of the trial court possibly excluding more confessions because of a higher standard of proof is to permit defendants to avoid trial and a just conviction by a jury, when the jury would have the opportunity to consider all of the circumstances under which the confession was elicited and weigh it accordingly. We are not persuaded that any incremental, indirect or speculative benefit that might flow from imposition of the reasonable doubt standard to the voluntariness determination substantially outweighs its increased costs to effective law enforcement and to the truth seeking process. We remain convinced, rather, that the preponderance standard provides a “fair and workable test”; State v. Staples, supra, 175 Conn. 406; that strikes the appropriate balance, in light of our historical background and contemporary policy concerns, between the various inter
We turn then to the defendant’s claim that the trial court improperly determined that the state had established, under the preponderance standard, that his confession was voluntary. In its decision, the trial court found that when the defendant arrived at the police station, he was advised of his Miranda rights, understood those rights and signed the rights advisement card. Shortly thereafter, he voluntarily revealed his real name, his involvement in certain burglaries and the fact that warrants for his arrest had been issued in Florida. Prior thereto he had not asked to leave the station or to speak to an attorney. Further, the court also found that the defendant, after learning that Sebastian had implicated him in the murder, negotiated with police for a favorable disposition, and ultimately agreed to give a statement. Before giving the statement, he was again warned of his Miranda rights, which he understood and freely waived. Finally, the court found that the defendant narrated the contents of the written confession to O’Leary between 1:30 p.m. and 3:20 p.m., that he thereafter read each of its pages aloud, acknowledged the truthfulness of its contents, and signed it in the presence of O’Leary and Henderson. The court expressly found the conflicting testimony of the defendant not credible. The court concluded that, on the evidentiary record before it, the state had established, both by a preponderance of the evidence and beyond a reasonable doubt, that, before confessing his involvement, the defendant had been properly warned of and
The defendant appears to challenge the trial court’s determination that the confession was voluntary on two grounds: (1) that the findings rest on the police version of the events at the police station, which was not credible; and (2) accepting the police version of events, that the trial court’s conclusion that the confession was voluntary was improper. We are unpersuaded.
The defendant’s first claim in this regard requires little discussion. The court reasonably credited the police version of the events leading up to the defendant’s confession, and we will not retry those credibility determinations on appeal. See State v. Figueroa, supra, 235 Conn. 179; Westport Taxi Service, Inc. v. Westport Transit District, 235 Conn. 1, 14, 664 A.2d 719 (1995).
With regard to his second contention, the defendant focuses primarily on the timing and duration of his interrogation. While these factors are clearly relevant to the voluntariness determination, they are not dispositive. See State v. Carter, 189 Conn. 631, 638, 458 A.2d 379 (1983) (eight hour period of detention before having given third confession, although substantial, “does not remotely approach the length of those interrogations held to be so objectionable on that ground among others as to warrant reversal of a finding by a trial court that a confession was voluntary”); see also State v. DeAngelis, 200 Conn. 224, 235, 511 A.2d 310 (1986) (ten and one-half hour police interview). Rather, the determination must take into account the totality of the circumstances. See Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 248-49, 93 S. Ct. 2041, 36 L. Ed. 2d 854 (1973). In this case, other relevant factors, such as the defendant’s extensive prior experience with the police, his admitted familiarity with his rights not to speak and to have an attorney present, the testimony of the police that he was not
II
The defendant next claims that his right to due process under the Connecticut constitution was violated by the admission of his written confession at trial because the police had failed to record it electronically. Specifically, he contends that article first, § 8, of the state constitution requires the police, when feasible, to record electronically confessions, interrogations and advisements of Miranda rights that occur in places of detention in order for such a confession to be admissible at trial. He argues that because his confession was given at the police station and recording was feasible, the admission of his confession that was not recorded violated his right to due process. The defendant concedes that he did not raise this claim at trial and, therefore, seeks to prevail under State v. Golding, 213 Conn. 233, 239-40, 567 A.2d 823 (1989).
The defendant relies on two elements of state constitutional analysis in support of his claim: sister state decisions and public policy concerns. See State v. Geisler, supra, 222 Conn. 685; see also footnote 26. The state argues that the recording requirement advanced by the defendant is inconsistent with the practice and precedent in this state regarding the admissibility of confessions and that the tools of analysis relied upon by the defendant do not provide compelling support for such a requirement. We agree with the state.
Electronic recording devices are, of course, a relatively recent technological advancement, and the absence of early historical support for their use in the receipt of confessions by the police is of little relevance to our inquiry. Other analogous means of verifying the accuracy and voluntariness of confessions and waivers of constitutional rights were available, however, at the time of the adoption of our due process clause and thereafter. Chief Justice Swift’s commentary on the laws of evidence does not indicate that any form of corroboration of the existence and circumstances of statements made by criminal defendants to police traditionally was required in order for such statements to be admissible at trial; see Z. Swift, A Digest of the Laws of Evidence (1810) p. 131 (“[i]t is a settled rule of common law, that in prosecutions for crimes, the voluntary confession of a prisoner, made to a private person or a magistrate, may be given in evidence against
Contemporary decisions of this court provide, by analogy, further support for the state’s position that a recording requirement is not required by the state constitution. In State v. Stepney, 191 Conn. 233, 254, 464 A.2d 758 (1983), cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1084, 104 S. Ct. 1455, 79 L. Ed. 2d 772 (1984), we concluded that all statements made to the state, its agents or other third parties were admissible in evidence as admissions. In several instances, we have expressly refused to limit this general rule by requiring corroboration of the existence and voluntariness of confessions or the waiver of constitutional rights such as the right to counsel or the right to remain silent. For example, although recognizing the relevance of a written waiver to the determination of whether a defendant knowingly and voluntarily has waived his Miranda rights, we have refused to require, as a matter of law, that a defendant execute a written waiver of those rights before subsequent incriminating statements may be admitted. State v. Shifflett, supra, 199 Conn. 733. We have similarly refused to require that there be a corroborative witness to a defendant’s oral waiver of his Miranda rights. See State v. Whitaker, supra, 215 Conn. 756; State v. Bartee, 167 Conn. 309, 313, 355 A.2d 250 (1974) (defendant’s oral statement given to police officer at hospital bedside was admissible after defendant, according to officer’s
Rather than establishing per se rules of corroboration for the admissibility of confessions, we consistently have allowed the trier of fact to consider the circumstances of the confession, including any lack of corroboration, in determining the weight, if any, to be afforded that particular piece of evidence. Id. “[T]he absence of testimony confirming that of a single witness to a confession may become highly significant with respect to the weight given to a confession by the arbiter of guilt. ‘A defendant has been as free since Jackson [v. Denno, supra, 378 U.S. 368], as he was before to familiarize a jury with circumstances that attend the taking of his confession, including facts bearing upon its weight and voluntariness. In like measure, of course, juries have been at liberty to disregard confessions that are insufficiently corroborated or otherwise deemed unworthy of belief.’ Lego v. Twomey, [supra, 404 U.S. 485-86].” State v. Whitaker, supra, 215 Conn. 757. Our history and precedents, therefore, do not support the defendant’s claim.
The defendant also finds little support for his claim in the case law of other jurisdictions. Of the several states that have considered the issue, only one state, Alaska, has concluded that electronic recording of confessions, where feasible, is required under its state constitution’s due process provision. Stephan v. State, 711 P.2d 1156, 1159 (Alaska 1985). The Supreme Court of Minnesota adopted a recording requirement pursuant
The focus of the defendant’s claim is a public policy argument that recording is a means to attain a desirable level of certainty that confessions are voluntarily made and accurately reported by the relevant witnesses. As we recognized earlier, the private interest affected by the vohintariness determination is substantial. The defendant’s argument is essentially that, in the absence of a recording requirement, his right to exclude an involuntary confession from trial is not adequately protected because, without a recording, the voluntariness determination often hinges upon the outcome of a “swearing contest” between the accused and the police, which contest is almost invariably resolved in favor of the police. He argues further that recording confessions and interrogations constitutes a “foolproof’ way to resolve accurately factual disputes about the relevant events and that the financial costs of compliance are not unduly burdensome. He claims, therefore, that recording is required as a matter of due process under the state constitution.
Initially, although we concur with the defendant that electronic recording “would, in many cases, be a helpful tool in evaluating the voluntariness of confessions”; Commonwealth v. Fryar, supra, 414 Mass. 742 n.8; we
More importantly, however, we are not prepared to accept the fundamental premise of the defendant’s argument that reliance on the trial court to resolve factual issues from the testimony of persons familiar with the events at issue, is, in this context, unacceptable as measured by the flexible concepts of due process. We are not persuaded that determinations of admissibility traditionally made by trial courts are inherently untrustworthy or that independent corroboration of otherwise competent testimonial or documentary evidence regarding the existence and voluntariness of a confession is necessary to comport with constitutional due process requirements.
Finally, the defendant identifies the state’s only burden arising from the recordation of confessions to be the costs of purchasing and maintaining recording equipment. While these costs might be substantial, there are also other “costs” associated with such a requirement. Requiring the police to record all confessions and interrogations in places of detention might severely inhibit the police in pursuing, by constitutionally valid methods, confession evidence. Moreover, a criminal
In sum, although we agree with the defendant that the recording of confessions and interrogations generally might be a desirable investigative practice, which is to be encouraged, we are not persuaded, in light of our history, precedent and the flexible notions of due process, that conditioning the admissibility of confessions on their recording is a requirement of due process under the state constitution. We, therefore, reject the defendant’s claim.
The defendant’s last claim is that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction. He argues that the written confession was the only evidence that connected him to the break-in and death of the victim, and that the confession was not sufficiently reliable to support his conviction. We disagree.
The standard of review employed in a sufficiency of the evidence claim is well settled. “[W]e apply a two-part test. First, we construe the evidence in the light most favorable to sustaining the verdict. Second, we determine whether upon the facts so construed and the inferences reasonably drawn therefrom the [finder of fact] reasonably could have concluded that the cumulative force of the evidence established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. . . . State v. Greenfield, [supra, 228 Conn. 76].” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Mejia, 233 Conn. 215, 223, 658 A.2d 571 (1995). “While the jury must find every element proven beyond a reasonable doubt in order to find the defendant guilty of the charged offense, each of the basic and inferred facts underlying those conclusions need not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Castonguay, 218 Conn. 486, 507, 590 A.2d 901 (1991). If it is reasonable and logical for the jury to conclude that a basic fact or an inferred fact is true, the jury is permitted to consider the fact proven and may consider it in combination
The defendant correctly asserts that the only issue in contention at trial was the identity of the perpetrator of the break-in and murder. The state presented substantial evidence to show that the defendant had voluntarily and truthfully confessed to his involvement in those crimes. The police officers who had questioned the defendant testified that he had voluntarily divulged his involvement in the break-in and murder after Sebastian implicated him in those crimes. The police officers denied having threatened the defendant with Fraser’s arrest or having prepared the written statement from sources other than the defendant’s own statements. Furthermore, the confession contained several accurate details regarding the condition of the victim’s apartment, the location of her body and the nature of her injuries.
The defendant testified in his own defense, claiming that he had not participated in the break-in and murder, and that he had never admitted to doing so. He claimed that on January 12, 1993, he had been in the company of Fields and Sebastian’s mother from approximately 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., and that he had then visited
The defendant also presented evidence to show that the victim’s injuries had occurred after 4 a.m. on January 13,1993. Dean Uphoff, a pathologist who had examined the victim’s brain, testified that, under normal conditions, the body’s healing response would cause certain white blood cells to migrate to the site of an injury within six to eight hours of infliction, and that, based on the absence of those cells at the site of the victim’s head injuries, it was his opinion that her injuries had occurred six to eight hours or less before her death at 12:30 p.m. on January 13, 1993. Uphoff admitted on cross-examination, however, that hypothermia could cause the body’s healing response to slow down, thereby resulting in fewer white blood cells at the site of the injuries than ordinarily expected. He also agreed that the victim had been hypothermic when she had arrived at the hospital on January 13, 1993, and that
With regard to the confession, the defendant testified at trial that he had been forcibly removed from his home in the early morning of January 15, 1993, and brought to the police station, where he was questioned for several hours. He claimed that he had consistently denied involvement in the break-in and murder, and that a police officer had shown him photographs of the crime scene. Detective Mancinelli testified, however, that the photographs taken of the crime scene by the forensic photographer had not been developed by January 15, 1993. The defendant also testified that, after several hours, he was threatened by the police that they would arrest Fraser and take her children into state custody if he did not “cooperate,” and that, to avoid Fraser’s arrest, he had signed the typewritten confession. He claimed that he did not provide the information contained in the confession, and he offered evidence, through cross-examination of several police officers, to show that the police officers who had prepared the statement had known the information contained in it regarding the crime scene before he was brought to the station for questioning.
The jury rejected the defendant’s testimony that he had not made the confession offered by the state, and that he had not been involved in the break-in and the victim’s death. Its determination required primarily the resolution of credibility issues, a function uniquely entrusted to the jury as finder of fact. We cannot say that the jury could not reasonably have disbelieved the testimony of the defendant and his witnesses, and believed the testimony of the police officers that the defendant had provided them with the contents of the written confession based on his own knowledge of the
The judgment is affirmed.
In this opinion PETERS, C. J., and CALLAHAN, BORDEN and PALMER, Js., concurred.
General Statutes § 53a-54c provides: “Felony murder. A person is guilty of murder when, acting either alone or with one or more persons, he commits or attempts to commit robbery, burglary, kidnapping, sexual assault in the first degree, aggravated sexual assault in the first degree, sexual assault in the third degree, sexual assault in the third degree with a firearm, escape in the first degree, or escape in the second degree and, in the course of and in furtherance of such crime or of flight therefrom, he, or another participant, if any, causes the death of a person other than one of the participants, except that in any prosecution under this section, in which the defendant was not the only participant in the underlying crime, it shall be an affirmative defense that the defendant: (1) Did not commit the homicidal act or in any way solicit, request, command, importune, cause or aid the commission thereof; and (2) was not armed with a deadly weapon, or any dangerous instrument; and (3) had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant was armed with such a weapon or instrument; and (4) had no reasonable ground to believe that any other participant intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death or serious physical injury.”
General Statutes § 53a-103 provides in relevant part: “Burglary in the third degree: Class D felony, (a) A person is guilty of burglary in the third degree when he enters or remains unlawfully in a building with intent to commit a crime therein. ...”
The defendant was sentenced to fifty years imprisonment on the felony murder conviction and to five years imprisonment, to be served concurrently, on the burglary conviction.
General Statutes § 51-199 (b) provides in relevant part: “The following matters shall be taken directly to the supreme court ... (3) an appeal in any criminal action involving a conviction for capital felony, class A felony, or other felony, including any persistent offender status, for which the maximum sentence which may be imposed exceeds twenty years . . . .”
Mariano noticed that the night-light that the victim usually kept plugged in or on the kitchen counter had been placed on the kitchen table, that the flashlight she usually kept on the kitchen counter or by her bedside at night was on the kitchen table, that a blanket had been placed over the dining room window, and that the shade on a dining room window had been pulled down. He communicated these observations to the Waterbury police on January 13, 1993.
The medical examiner also found several recent bruises on the victim’s hands and body.
See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966).
The defendant moved for a judgment of acquittal on the ground that the evidence adduced at trial was insufficient to support his conviction.
The defendant sought a new trial on the ground that certain remarks made by the prosecutor during closing argument had violated his due process right to a fair trial guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment to the United States constitution and by article first, § 8, of the Connecticut constitution.
On appeal, the defendant also appears to claim that, even if he was not illegally seized at his apartment, he was nevertheless illegally “detained” thereafter during the course of his interrogation at the police station throughout the morning and, therefore, that his confession should have been excluded as the fruit of that extended encounter. In this regard, he asserts that he was not free to leave the police station at any time after his arrival, and that the police did not have probable cause at any time to detain him. This claim, however, was not raised at trial, and is not accompanied by citation to or discussion of any authority on the issue of custody and, therefore, has not been adequately briefed on appeal. We, therefore, decline to review it.
Although the defendant purports to challenge the trial court’s finding that he validly waived his Miranda rights, he equates this claim with the claim that the trial court improperly concluded that his confession had been voluntarily given, and does not suggest that he did not understand his rights or the consequences of his waiver. It appears, therefore, that his challenge in this regard is limited to the trial court’s finding that the state adequately had established that his waiver of his Miranda rights was voluntary. Because the defendant relies on the same evidence of coercion with regard to both the voluntariness of his Miranda waiver and the actual voluntariness of his confession, and does not suggest how that evidence could apply differently to his claim regarding the voluntariness of his Miranda waiver, this claim is adequately addressed by our analysis of the issue of actual voluntariness.
The defendant also appears to claim that the state should be required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was properly advised of and validly waived his Miranda rights. He has not provided an independent analysis of this issue, however, but has equated it with his claim that the state must prove the actual voluntariness of his confession beyond a reasonable doubt. These issues, although related and somewhat overlapping, are nevertheless analytically distinct. Because the defendant has neither clearly raised the claim that a valid Miranda waiver must be demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt, nor addressed his analysis to this issue, we do not reach it.
Henderson and another detective, James Egan, had spoken with the defendant the previous afternoon about the murder and several area burglaries, after a resident of the neighborhood had indicated that the defendant and Sebastian might have been involved in the burglaries. The defendant agreed to go to the station for questioning, where he denied involvement in the crimes, and was driven home.
Fields had called the police station during the evening of January 14, with information about the victim’s murder and some local burglaries. He was brought to the police station and gave a statement implicating the defendant in those crimes, which statement was completed at approximately 1 a.m. on January 15. Fields’ statement was not admitted into evidence at the defendant’s trial and Fields did not testify.
The card bearing Miranda warnings and the defendant’s signature was introduced into evidence at the hearing on the defendant’s motion to suppress and at trial. The defendant does not claim that the warnings printed on the card failed to comply with Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966).
The statement form first enumerates the Miranda warnings and sets forth a statement of waiver, both of which are followed by the defendant’s initials. The statement also contains the defendant’s age, thirty-one, certain details of his relationship with Fraser, and details of his acquaintance with Sebastian, including the fact that they had committed several local burglaries together, which portion was redacted at trial.
With regard to the break-in and murder, the statement provides as follows. The defendant and Sebastian broke into 13-15 Green Street at approximately 11p.m. onJanuary 12,1993, to steal copper. Both men wore gloves. Sebastian pried open a rear door to a first floor apartment while the defendant stood lookout. Finding nothing in that apartment, the two men went upstairs through the front hallway and pried open the door to a second floor apartment. While the defendant searched the kitchen cabinets, he heard a “big thump” and an expletive from Sebastian. He found Sebastian in the bedroom, standing over a person lying on the floor, whose head was near the closet and feet were near the doorway. He and Sebastian then searched the apart
The statement also provides: “I went voluntarily to the police station. I am sorry for everything that happened.” The defendant’s initials appear in the body of the statement where corrections appear to have been made and his signature appears at the bottom of each page.
According to the defendant, he was handcuffed by Henderson just before the defendant left the porch to walk down the stairs with Henderson and O’Leary. Fraser, however, testified that she thought the defendant had been handcuffed at the police car.
The defendant made this claim only during the suppression hearing. He did not testily at trial that Egan or any other officer struck him while he was at the police station that morning.
The defendant did not testify to this incident at trial.
At trial, Detective Martin Mancinelli testified that he and Detective Ken Henebry, a forensic photographer, had responded to 13-15 Green Street on January 13, 1993, to collect evidence from the crime scene. Henebry had taken photographs of the crime scene on that date. Mancinelli testified that, ordinarily, either he or Henebry would develop such photographs, and that the photographs taken at 13-15 Green Street on January 13, had not been developed on January 13, 14 or 15.
The constitution of Connecticut, article first, § 7, provides: “The people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers and possessions from unreasonable searches or seizures; and no warrant shall issue without describing them as nearly as may be, nor without probable cause supported by oath or affirmation.”
The fourth amendment to the United States constitution provides: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
“The United States Supreme Court has held that the fourth amendment’s prohibition against the use of evidence obtained as the result of an illegal search is applicable to the states through the fourteenth amendment to the United States constitution. See Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S. Ct. 1684, 6 L. Ed. 2d 1081, reh. denied, 368 U.S. 871, 82 S. Ct. 23, 7 L. Ed. 2d 72 (1961).” State v. Rasmussen, 225 Conn. 55, 80 n.17, 621 A.2d 728 (1993).
The state concedes that the police lacked probable cause to arrest the defendant at his apartment and does not argue that, if a seizure occurred, a lesser degree of suspicion would justify it.
The defendant does not claim that the police purposely delayed their visit until 1:30 a.m. Rather, he concedes that they acted on Fields’ statement shortly after it was completed.
The constitution of Connecticut, article first, § 8, provides in relevant part: “No person shall be . . . deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law . . . .”
In interpreting our state constitution, “we consider the following ‘tools of analysis’: (1) the ‘textual’ approach — consideration of the specific words in the constitution; (2) holdings and dicta of this court and the Appellate Court; (3) federal precedent; (4) the ‘sibling’ approach — examination of other states’ decisions; (5) the ‘historical’ approach — including consideration of the historical constitutional setting and the debates of the framers; and (6) economic and sociological, or public policy, considerations.” State v. Linares, supra, 232 Conn. 379. The defendant concedes that pertinent federal and state precedent do not support his claim.
See State v. Lorain, 141 Conn. 694, 700, 109 A.2d 504 (1954); State v. Palko, 121 Conn. 669, 680-81, 186 A. 657 (1936); State v. Willis, supra, 71 Conn. 312; State v. Coffee, 56 Conn. 399, 414-15, 16 A. 151 (1888); State v. Potter, 18 Conn. 165, 178 (1846); Z. Swift, A Digest of the Laws of Evidence (1810) p. 133.
The United States Supreme Court noted that Connecticut courts also appeared at times to have applied the common law rule categorically, requiring exclusion if an improper inducement existed, without regard to the likely reliability of the particular confession at issue. See Rogers v. Richmond, supra, 365 U.S. 543 n.1.
See 2 Z. Swift, A Digest of the Laws of the State of Connecticut (1823) p. 408 (“[C]onfessions are from their nature liable to suspicions ... so likely to be influenced by hope, or fear, and so liable, like all hearsay evidence to be misrepresented, and changed in the narration, that the law does not suffer them to be received except under peculiar circumstances. . . . [T]he confession must be perfectly voluntary: for if the least degree of influence appear to be exercised over the prisoner’s mind, to induce him to disclose his guilt, the whole will be rejected.”); 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1807) p. 357 (“indeed, even in cases of felony at the common law, [confessions] are the weakest and most suspicious of all
See Taylor v. State, 479 N.E.2d 1310 (Ind. 1985); Bradley v. Commonwealth, 439 S.W.2d 61 (Ky. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 974, 90 S. Ct. 1091, 25 L. Ed. 2d 268 (1970); State v. Vernon, 385 So. 2d 200 (La. 1980); State v. Collins, 297 A.2d 620 (Me. 1972); Commonwealth v. Tavares, 385 Mass. 140, 430 N.E.2d 1198, cert. denied, 457 U.S. 1137, 102 S. Ct. 2967, 73 L. Ed. 2d 1356 (1982); Harrison v. State, 285 So. 2d 889 (Miss. 1973); State v. Phinney, 117 N.H. 145, 370 A.2d 1153 (1977); State v. Franklin, 52 N.J. 386, 245 A.2d 356 (1968); People v. Huntley, 15 N.Y.2d 72, 204 N.E.2d 179, 255 N.Y.S.2d 838 (1965); State v. Drayton, 287 S.C. 226, 337 S.E.2d 216 (1985); State v. Hintz, 318 N.W.2d 915 (S.D. 1982); State v. Owens, 148 Wis. 2d 922, 436 N.W.2d 869 (1989).
See Magwood v. State, 494 So. 2d 124 (Ala. Crim. App. 1985), aff'd, 494 So. 2d 154, cert. denied, 479 U.S. 995, 107 S. Ct. 599, 93 L. Ed. 2d 599 (1986); Stobaugh v. State, 614 P.2d 767 (Alaska 1980); State v. Burr, 126 Ariz. 338, 615 P.2d 635 (1980); Jackson v. State, 273 Ark. 107, 617 S.W.2d 13 (1981); People v. Fordyce, 200 Colo. 153, 612 P.2d 1131 (1980); State v. Rooks, 401 A.2d 943 (Del. 1979); Wells v. United States, 407 A.2d 1081 (D.C. 1979); McDole v. State, 283 So.2d 553 (Fla. 1973); White v. State, 242 Ga. 21, 247 S.E.2d 759 (1978); State v. Aitken, 121 Idaho 783, 828 P.2d 346 (1992); People v. King, 109 Ill. 2d 514, 488 N.E.2d 949 (1986); State v. Rank, 214 N.W.2d 136 (Iowa 1974); Hillard v. State, 286 Md. 145, 406 A.2d 415 (1979) (admissibility by preponderance, but once admitted, trier of fact must find voluntary beyond reasonable doubt); People v. DeLisle, 455 N.W.2d 401 (Mich. App. 1990); State v. Pilcher, 472 N.W.2d 327 (Minn. 1991); State v. Hahn, 618 S.W.2d 435 (Mo. 1981); State v. LaFreniere, 163 Mont. 21, 515 P.2d 76 (1973); State v. Porter, 235 Neb. 476, 455 N.W.2d 787 (1990); Quiriconi v. State, 96 Nev. 766, 616 P.2d 1111 (1980); State v. Jones, 327 N.C. 439, 396 S.E.2d 309 (1990); State v. Arrington, 14 Ohio App. 3d 111, 470 N.E.2d 211 (1984); Commonwealth ex rel. Butler v. Rundle, 429 Pa. 141, 239 A.2d 426 (1968); State v. Breznick, 134 Vt. 261, 356 A.2d 540 (1976); Griggs v. Commonwealth, 220 Va. 46, 255 S.E.2d 475 (1979); State v. Vance, 162 W. Va. 467, 250 S.E.2d 146 (1978); Garcia v. State, 777 P.2d 603 (Wyo. 1989).
Only one state, Rhode Island, has chosen the clear and convincing standard of proof. The origins of this standard are not clear. See State v. Arpin, 410 A.2d 1340 (R.I. 1980).
“[A] defendant can prevail on a claim of constitutional error not preserved at trial only if all of the following conditions are met: (1) the record is adequate to review the alleged claim of error; (2) the claim is of constitutional magnitude alleging the violation of a fundamental right; (3) the alleged constitutional violation clearly exists and clearly deprived the defendant of a fair trial; and (4) if subject to harmless error analysis, the state has failed to demonstrate harmlessness of the alleged constitutional violation beyond a reasonable doubt.” (Emphasis in original.) State v. Golding, supra, 213 Conn. 239-40. “We have also held that we remain free to dispose of the
The defendant does not argue that the text of article first, § 8, of the state constitution informs this issue or that federal precedent supports his claim. We therefore focus our analysis on the remaining elements.
See Dill v. State, 600 So. 2d 343 (Ala. Crim. App. 1991); People v. Raibon, 843 P.2d 46 (Colo. App. 1992); State v. Rhoades, 119 Idaho 594, 809 P.2d 455 (1991); People v. Everette, 187 Ill. App. 3d 1063, 543 N.E.2d 1040 (1989); State v. Buzzell, 617 A.2d 1016 (Me. 1992); Commonwealth v. Fryar, 414 Mass. 732, 610 N.E.2d 903 (1993); Williams v. State, 522 So. 2d 201 (Miss. 1988); Jiminez v. State, 105 Nev. 337, 775 P.2d 694 (1989); State v. James, 858 P.2d 1012 (Utah App. 1993); State v. Gorton, 149 Vt. 602, 548 A.2d 419 (1988); State v. Spurgeon, 63 Wash. App. 503, 820 P.2d 960 (1991); State v. Williams, 190 W. Va. 538, 438 S.E.2d 881 (1993).
The defendant also urges this court, if it concludes that recordation is not constitutionally required, to suppress his confession pursuant to its supervisory authority over the administration of justice. This claim — that we should mandate that the police make and preserve corroborative evidence as a condition to the state’s use at trial of an otherwise admissible confession — implicates the proper boundaries of our supervisory authority, the exercise of which traditionally has been addressed to the conduct of judicial actors. See, e.g., State v. Brown, 235 Conn. 502, 526, 668 A.2d 1288 (1995) (directing trial courts to hold preliminary hearing whenever presented with allegations of jury misconduct in criminal cases, regardless of whether hearing is requested by counsel); State v. Breton, 235 Conn. 206, 250, 663 A.2d 1026 (1995) (directing language of special verdict form in capital sentencing hearing); State v. Patterson, 230 Conn. 385, 397-98, 645 A.2d 535 (1994) (directing personal judicial supervision of voir dire); State v. Holloway, 209 Conn. 636, 645-46, 553 A.2d 166, cert. denied, 490 U.S. 1071, 109 S. Ct. 2078,
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. Our state constitution provides that “[n]o person shall be compelled to give evidence against himself . . . .” Conn. Const., art. I, § 8. This constitutional guarantee is a fundamental tenet of our democracy. Its roots go back to the ancient Hebrew law “ ‘that no man is to be declared guilty on his own admission . . . .’ ’
I
In this case, the defendant, Anthony James, has consistently claimed that his confession was coerced. He claims that it was a document prepared by the police based largely on another person’s confession. The defendant testified that his signature on the confession was obtained by the police after he was held and continuously questioned for almost fourteen hours, during which he was threatened that his fiancee, Carolyn Fraser, would be arrested and his children placed in foster care. The state disputes much of the defendant’s allegations, and claims that the questioning took place over “several hours,” as characterized by the majority of this court. The state, however, acknowledges that the defendant was awakened by the police at 1:30 a.m. on January 14, 1993, removed from his home and brought to the police station, whereupon he was questioned until 3:30 p.m. that day. During this time, the police admit that the defendant had almost nothing to eat or drink, and that he did not sleep. They also admit that he was presented with a written copy of Michael Sebastian’s confession at approximately 5:30 a.m., who was undergoing questioning regarding the same crime in another room at the police station, and that the defendant continued to deny any participation in the crime until at least 11 a.m. It stretches the imagination that, under the facts of this case, the confession was voluntary. A finding, under any standard, that there was no police coercion cannot stand. We have no tape recordings, videotapes or any other independent record of what occurred during those fourteen hours at the
Although there is a claim of physical abuse in this case, our concern, as Chief Justice Warren wrote in Miranda, has moved away from the police’s resort “to physical brutality — beatings, hanging, whipping . . . .” Miranda v. Arizona, supra, 384 U.S. 446. Rather, “the modem practice of in-custody interrogation is psychologically rather than physically oriented.” Id., 448. Relying on “various police manuals and texts which document procedures employed with success in the past, and which recommend various other effective tactics”; id.; Chief Justice Warren in Miranda then described the various psychological procedures used by the police to extract a confession, including isolation, the “principal psychological factor contributing to a successful interrogation . . . .” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Id., 449. In addition to isolation, police manuals referred to the importance of unfamiliar and
“It is obvious that such an interrogation environment is created for no purpose other than to subjugate the individual to the will of his examiner. This atmosphere carries its own badge of intimidation. To be sure, this is not physical intimidation, but it is equally destructive of human dignity. The current practice of incommunicado interrogation is at odds with one of our Nation’s most cherished principles — that the individual may not be compelled to incriminate himself. Unless adequate protective devises are employed to dispel the compulsion inherent in custodial surroundings, no statement obtained from the defendant can truly be the product of his free choice.” Id., 457-58.
I have elsewhere stated that: “ ‘Although we normally give great deference to the factual findings of the trial court, the ultimate issue of whether the statement is voluntary and admissible is a legal determination. Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 287, 111 S. Ct. 1246, 113 L. Ed. 2d 302, reh. denied, 500 U.S. 938, 111 S. Ct. 2067, 114 L. Ed. 2d 472 (1991).’ State v. Roman, 224
On the basis of the facts of this case — whether the standard for the burden of persuasion on the part of the state to prove the voluntariness of a confession is by a preponderance of the evidence or beyond a reasonable doubt — I would find that the confession was coerced, and order that it be suppressed at a new trial.
II
I would also hold that, under our state constitution, the state must prove that the confession of an accused is voluntary beyond a reasonable doubt. I start my state constitutional analysis with the underlying policy reasons for determining which of the burdens of persuasion are applicable. Burdens of proof are allocated upon the willingness of society to accept the risk of an erroneous determination. For example, “[w]e permit proof by a preponderance of the evidence in civil litigation because we view it as no more serious in general for there to be an erroneous verdict in the defendant’s favor
On the other hand, in a criminal matter we require proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The Supreme Court of the United States pointed out in In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 363, 90 S. Ct. 1068, 25 L. Ed. 2d 368 (1970), that the reasonable doubt standard “is a prime instrument for reducing the risk of convictions resting on factual error. The standard provides concrete substance for the presumption of innocence . ...” As Justice Harlan stated in his concurring opinion, “the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal case [is] bottomed on a fundamental value determination of our society that it is far worse to convict an innocent man than to let a guilty man go free.” Id., 372.
I am unwilling to accept the risk of an erroneous determination that the confession was voluntary when in fact it may have been coerced. “If we permit the prosecution to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that a confession was voluntary, then, to paraphrase Mr. Justice Harlan, we must be prepared to justify the view that it is no more serious in general to admit involuntary confessions than it is to exclude voluntary confessions. . . . Compelled self-incrimination is so alien to the American sense of justice that I see no way that such a view could ever be justified.” Lego v. Twomey, supra, 404 U.S. 494 (Brennan, J., dissenting).
The majority today places a confession on the same level as any other evidential ruling during the course of a trial. This fails to recognize that confessions are “a special type of evidence.” State v. Trammell, 240 Neb. 724, 736-37, 484 N.W.2d 263 (1992); State v. Phinney, 117 N.H. 145, 147, 370 A.2d 1153 (1977). As the
The need for the heightened standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt that a confession was voluntary is underscored by a fundamental principle of our criminal justice system — that no one shall be found guilty of a crime except upon proof of every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. In re Winship, supra, 397 U.S. 364. Anyone who has had any experience with the criminal justice system and the trial of a criminal case — either as a judge or trial counsel — knows that the confession once admitted is tantamount to conviction. State v. Phinney, supra, 117 N.H. 147 (acceptance of confession “basically amounts to conviction”). Because our system of justice is predicated on the reasonable doubt standard, it then logically follows that the voluntariness of a confession must be established by proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
There is also another practical aspect of this issue that cannot be overlooked. In most instances the decision as to whether the confession is to be admitted into evidence is usually based on the credibility of the police officer and the defendant.
With these policy reasons in mind, I continue with my state constitutional analysis. “It is well established that federal constitutional . . . law establishes a minimum national standard for the exercise of individual rights and does not inhibit state governments from affording higher levels of protection for such rights. . . . Moreover, we have held that [i]n the area of fundamental civil liberties — which includes all protections of the declaration of rights contained in article first of the Connecticut constitution — we sit as a court of last resort. ... In such constitutional adjudication, our first referent is Connecticut law and the full panoply of rights Connecticut citizens have come to expect as their due. Accordingly, decisions of the United States Supreme Court defining fundamental rights are persuasive authority to be afforded respectful consideration,
This court, today, relies on State v. Staples, 175 Conn. 398, 399 A.2d 1269 (1978), for the precedent that merely apreponderance of the evidence is required. It is correct that in Staples, the court held under the state constitution “that a trial court should follow the preponderance of the evidence standard and not the reasonable doubt standard in determining whether or not the state has sustained its burden of proving voluntariness when a confession of a criminal defendant is offered into evidence.” Id., 406-407. Staples, however, is not binding precedent for two reasons.
Second, Staples was decided in an era when no independent meaning was given to those provisions of the state constitution that paralleled those of the federal constitution. For example, for years this court held that the due process provisions of the federal and state constitutions have the same meaning and impose similar limitations. State v. Brigandi, 186 Conn. 521, 542, 442 A.2d 927 (1982); Caldor’s, Inc. v. Bedding Barn, Inc., 177 Conn. 304, 314, 417 A.2d 343 (1979); Roundhouse Construction v. Telesco Masons Supplies, 168 Conn. 371, 374, 362 A.2d 778, vacated, 423 U.S. 809, 96 S. Ct. 20, 46 L. Ed. 2d 29 (1975), aff'd on remand, 170 Conn. 155, 365 A.2d 393, cert. denied, 429 U.S. 889, 97 S. Ct. 246, 50 L. Ed. 2d 172 (1976); Katz v. Brandon, 156 Conn. 521, 537, 245 A.2d 579 (1968); Cyphers v. Allyn, 142 Conn. 699, 703, 118 A.2d 318 (1955); State ex rel. Brush v. Sixth Taxing District, 104 Conn. 192, 195, 132 A. 561 (1926). Pursuant to an appropriate state constitutional analysis, however, we have determined that our state due process provision provides greater protection for the criminal defendant. State v. Morales, 232 Conn. 707, 726-27, 657 A.2d 585 (1995) (rejecting federal litmus test of good or bad faith of police in failing to preserve potentially useful evidence, state due process clause requires trial court to employ balancing test that weighs reasons for unavailability of evidence
In addition to the sociological and public policy reasons I have heretofore discussed, we look to the state’s common law before the adoption of the Connecticut constitution in 1818 to aid in interpreting our state constitution. State v. Oquendo, 223 Conn. 635, 650, 613 A.2d 1300 (1992). When doing so, however, we have held that the historical analysis must be tempered with a contemporary meaning. State v. Dukes, supra, 209 Conn. 114-15 (“Constitutional provisions must be interpreted within the context of the times. . . . The Connecticut constitution is an instrument of progress, it is intended to stand for a great length of time and should not be interpreted too narrowly or too literally so that it fails to have contemporary effectiveness for all of our citizens.” [Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.]).
As I pointed out in my dissenting opinions in both Medina and Stanley, valid and compelling historical reasons exist to require under the state constitution that the state has the burden of proving that a confession is voluntary beyond a reasonable doubt. In my analysis in those cases, I noted that the “value the framers of our state constitution placed on the right to remain silent is evident and important in determining the contours of the state constitutional protection. State v. Geisler, [222 Conn. 672, 685, 610 A.2d 1225 (1992)]. Zephaniah Swift, a leading jurist ... of 1818, wrote in his treatise on the law that ‘the confession must be perfectly voluntary: for if the least degree of influence
General “[c]ommon law precedent also leads me to the conclusion that our state constitution requires a higher standard of proof of voluntariness of a confession. E. Peters, ‘Common Law Antecedents of Constitutional Law in Connecticut,’ 53 Alb. L. Rev. 259, 263 (1989). Blackstone, in formally shaping the contours of our common law, wrote: ‘[I]ndeed, even in cases of felony at the common law, [confessions] are the weakest and most suspicious of all testimony; ever hable to be obtained by artifice, false hopes, promises of favor, or menaces; seldom remembered accurately, or reported with due precision; and incapable in their nature of being disproved by other negative evidence.’ 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1807) p. 357.” State v. Stanley, supra, 223 Conn. 699 (Berdon, J., dissenting).
Every state but one in the northeast has adopted a standard of proof in excess of the preponderance of the evidence to determine the voluntariness of a confession. See State v. Collins, 297 A.2d 620 (Me. 1972) (reasonable doubt); Commonwealth v. Mandile, 397 Mass.
In light of “the traditional belief that an accused may be convicted only if exacting measures have been taken to assure that the accused has been treated with the most scrupulous fairness by law enforcement officials”; (internal quotation marks omitted) State v. Stoddard, supra, 206 Conn. 166; a judgment of conviction based in any part on a coerced confession must be set aside and the case remanded for a new trial. Id., 176-77.
I find the thought that a man or woman may be convicted on the basis of a physically or psychologically coerced confession to be revolting. Requiring a reasonable doubt standard would not only elevate to its proper position the constitutional right not to be compelled to give evidence against oneself, it would also be consistent with the constitutional requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt in order to find guilt.
Accordingly, I dissent.
“Thirteenth century commentators found an analogue to the privilege grounded in the Bible. ‘To sum up the matter, the principle that no man is to be declared guilty on his own admission is a divine decree.’ Maimonides, Mishneh Torah (Code of Jewish Law), Book of Judges, Laws of the Sanhedrin, c. 18, ¶ 6, III Yale Judaica Series 52-53. See also Lamm, The Fifth Amendment and Its Equivalent in the Halakhah, 5 Judaism 53 (Winter 1956).” Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 458 n.27, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966).
The defendant, provided the following account of his testimony at the suppression hearing: “[A]t approximately 1 a.m. on January 15, 1993, he heard a banging at the door and someone saying it was the Waterbury police. He threw on some shorts and cracked the door open. The police said ‘open the door and kind of like pushed it in.’ Four officers came through the front door with guns drawn. The defendant was frightened and obeyed the order to sit on the couch. One of the officers, [Sergeant Neil] O’Leary, asked the defendant where Michael Sebastian was. The defendant responded ‘don’t tell me Mike had something to do with that murder. ’ The reason the defendant said this is the police had questioned him earlier about Sebastian’s whereabouts the night the lady was killed. The officers never gave the defendant any more information about why they had come into his house at 1:30 a.m. The defendant was confused and frightened and felt that he was being arrested for murder. He was told to get dressed and was ordered to do so in the living room. He was not free to move around the apartment. ‘They never really said the reason they were there. They told me I had to go with them downtown. I was taking a ride.’ After he was dressed, the defendant was allowed to kiss the baby goodbye, in the presence of two detectives, one of whom had his gun drawn. The defendant was escorted out the front door to the landing where he was handcuffed before he was taken down the stairs and put into the back of a police car. The defendant did not ask to get out of the cruiser because T felt that I was being arrested.’ At the station he was put in a small room with Detective [James] Egan and [Sergeant Robert] Henderson. He was told to explain how he and Mike had murdered the lady down the street. When the defendant started to protest and swear, Henderson hit him across the face, admonished him not to talk that way in his house and asked himif he understood his rights. The defendant responded: ‘Yes, I do and I’d like to have a lawyer present.” He said, ‘Do you have one?’ I said ‘no.’ He said, ‘Well, no public defender is going to come down here this time of night. ’ At this point the defendant was ‘very scared to death and pretty emotional.’ He did not ask to leave because he felt they would not allow that based on the fact that he had been refused permission to leave the room to use the lavatory, and so had to urinate in a trash can. Over the next several hours the defendant repeatedly denied involvement in either the [Pauline] Grincunas homicide or neighborhood burglaries perpetrated with Joe Fields and Sebastian. He did admit to breaking into one plumbing place with Sebastian and volunteered to take a lie detector test. Around 6:30 or 7 a.m., the defendant was moved to another interrogation and shown Sebastian’s statement, which named the defendant as the murderer. The police also showed him pictures of what they said was the crime scene and urged him to tell what he knew of Sebastian’s involvement.
"Around 7:30 or 8 a.m., the defendant tried to take a snooze. He was very tired and had not had any sleep since the previous night. A detective woke him and warned that there was no sleeping allowed in this jail. Around 9 a.m., the defendant was told that Fraser was going to be arrested for harboring a fugitive based on the defendant’s bad check charges from Florida. A half
The defendant provided the following account of Fraser’s testimony at the suppression hearing: “Carolyn Fraser contradicted the police account of a friendly dead-of-night visit by four armed detectives — two covering each door. She and the defendant were in bed during the early morning hours of January 15,1993, when, at about 1:15 a.m., there was aloud banging on the door. The defendant got up and asked who was there. She heard someone say, ‘Waterbury police.’ The defendant, who was not dressed, grabbed some shorts and started to open the door, at which point two officers pushed their way in. They ordered the defendant to sit on the couch and told Fraser to get out of bed and sit there with him. Four detectives came through the front door and two uniformed officers came through the back door. They asked the defendant where Sebastian was and told him ‘they wanted to take him for a ride downtown.’ After the police checked the defendant’s clothes, they had him dress in the living room. When the defendant asked to kiss the baby goodbye, he was escorted into the bedroom while one of the officers held his gun out. They took the defendant out the front door. As Fraser looked out the front window, she saw the defendant leaning chest up against the police car with his hands behind his back. Two detectives, [James] Griffin and [William] Cassada, remained in the apartment with her. Detective Griffin told Fraser that if she knew anything about what the defendant had done, she had better cooperate or she would be arrested and her children placed in foster care. Distraught, Fraser called her friend Selma Haddad and asked her to come over so that there would be someone with the children in the event Fraser was arrested.”
The defendant provided the following account of Haddad’s testimony at the suppression hearing: “Selma Haddad testified that when she arrived and knocked on the apartment door, it was opened by an acquaintance of hers, Detective Sergeant Jim Griffin. After calming Fraser’s children, who had been upset by all the commotion, Haddad asked Griffin what was going on. Griffin told her that if Fraser ‘doesn’t cooperate with everything we want, she’s going to be arrested and her kids will go to [the department of children and youth services].’ Haddad said that although there were two officers inside the apartment and several police officers who went in and out over a several hour time span, Griffin was the only one she knew by name. She remained at the apartment until morning when she left, first to get coffee, and shortly thereafter to go to work around 8 a.m.”
I agree with the majority that our state constitution’s due process clause does not require electronic recording. Although I urge the police to voluntarily make such recordings from the moment the accused enters the police station until such time as all interrogation terminates, I leave to another day whether we should require this under our supervisory authority over the administration of justice.
“In making this determination [of whether the confession was in fact voluntarily rendered], the trial court will often have to decide which one of two self-serving accounts to believe, as the testimony presented at a . . . hearing ordinarily consists of conflicting versions by the defendant and law enforcement officers as to what occurred during the interrogation of the defendant by those officers which led to the defendant’s confession. (See Lego v. Twomey, supra, [404 U.S. 492 (Brennan J., dissenting)].) In light of the factual nature of this inquiry, the degree of certainty as to which a trial
Two justices did not participate in Lego.
Although the trial court at the pretrial suppression hearing applied the heightened reasonable doubt standard, it failed to instruct the jury as to that standard. Of course, the issue of whether the confession is voluntary is one ultimately for the jury.
Concurrence Opinion
concurring. I agree with part II of Justice Berdon’s dissent that the state should be required to prove that the defendant’s confession was voluntary beyond a reasonable doubt. The trial court in this case, however, did determine that, even under this heightened standard, the defendant’s confession was voluntary.
Accordingly, I concur in the result.
